Town hall celebrates 150 eventful years

It's been a concert hall, an exhibition hall, a music hall, a theatre, a youth club, a council chamber, a place of worship, a warehouse, a picture house, and was even a public mortuary for a time.

Over the years it's been run down and it's been done up. And now, on Friday, October 13, Dawley Town Hall is having a knees-up to celebrate its 150th anniversary.

There's a welcome drink provided on entry – something that will have the Victorian founders of the hall turning in their graves.

Because it was originally built by supporters of the temperance cause. Turn back the clock to Monday, October 13, 1873, and the foundation stone for the building on Dun Cow Bank was laid. It was built as a Good Templars Hall, with the Good Templars movement in Dawley having begun 12 months previously to fight the demon drink.

For some of the highlights of the hall's history we can turn to A W Bowdler, the Dawley correspondent who played a part in shaping modern Shropshire as it was an article he wrote in 1955 which planted the seeds of the idea to create Dawley New Town, which was the forerunner to the new town of Telford.

He was known as Fred or Freddie Bowdler, but to a lot of locals was simply "Scoop" Bowdler.

The hall is known to have presented cinematograph entertainment as early as November 1900.

The late Freddie – he died in 1979 – was to recall that the hall presented Professor Woods' animated pictures but in the years just before the Great War it took on a grander aspect when it become known as the Royal Windsor Picture Palace, run by a Mr Bannister, who had a wooden leg, a strong Black Country accent, and always seemed to wear a bowler hat.

"And what a night it was when Dawley Town Hall became the 'Royal Windsor.' On that Monday evening crowds streamed towards the hall."

They were amazed to see, standing on the doorsteps, a handsome blond young man, resplendent in a vivid green uniform with shining brass buttons, and the words "Royal Windsor" inscribed in gold braid on his peaked cap.

"Such splendour had never before been seen in the little Cinderella mining town of the industrial revolution."

Opening night, for which unfortunately Freddie does not give the date, was packed.

"The opening programme presented a silent Western film and the well known man and wife variety act of Fay and Foy, who became firm favourites with Dawley audiences, and who first introduced to Dawley the number 'I'm Forever Blowing Bubbles,' which was later to become the Wellington Town FC 'battle song'."

Not all the entertainment was provided by the management, as regularly members of the audience would spontaneously join in, with two particularly coming to mind.

Billy Lloyd, from Lawley Bank, was only 4ft 4ins and was a well-known local character whose laugh was so infectious among audiences that it would often bring shows to a temporary stop. Tommy Frost, meanwhile, had his own stock of catchphrases, and at unexpected moments in performances would, in a deep resonant voice, make a plea to "give him life."

A feature of the Royal Windsor, said Freddie, was the high quality of its variety acts, which led to the town's traders and leading citizens beginning to patronise the Royal, while a further attraction was local talent contests, in which often the prizes were a leg of lamb from a local butcher.

"It was one of these singing and dancing contests that well nigh brought disaster to the Royal Windsor. A well-known local woman who had entered was doing her song and dance act when she began to get a little excited and, lifting her skirts above a not-too-clean pair of knees, did a sort of Knees Up Mother Brown routine in front of the local tradespeople as she sang 'There's A Rocking Horse For Frankie, There's A Pram For Isabel.'

"This was too much for the local traders, many of whom got up and walked out."

After the Great War the hall again became a theatre, under the direction of Rueben Allworth, a reserved and gentlemanly actor of the "old school".

As the largest building for many years in Dawley area the hall was particularly sought out for political meetings during general elections. Political speakers there have ranged from Horatio Bottomley to Neil Kinnock.

In the early 1960s Dawley was being touted as a potential new town, and in November 1962 the town hall hosted the public inquiry into the project.

Moving to the present day, if you want to join in Friday's celebration, it's for over-18s only and is from 7pm to 11pm, £10 per ticket, "dress to impress," and is an evening of entertainment featuring "Casey's On Tour." Booking details are on the Great Dawley Town Council website.

A last word from Freddie's 1960s recollections: "Whatever the planners have in mind for a public hall in Dawley New Town, however modern and attractive it may be, the atmosphere, gaiety, and usefulness of Dawley's old town hall will long remain a memory."